The Tournament of Books is one of my favorite awards. It’s creative pairing of sixteen books against each other, the comical banter between the commentators and the insightful words of the judges makes for a exceptional two weeks of literary fun. And if you haven’t read all the finalists, these are some great recommendations.

The Morning News, on online literary publication has put on the Tournament of Books every year since 2005. With Powell’s Books of Portland Oregon and Field Notes as sponsors, the tournament identifies “16 of the most celebrated and highly touted novels of the year, seed[s] them in a March Madness-type bracket, conscript[s] them into a ‘Battle Royal of Literary Excellence,’ …and present[s] the author of the winning book a live rooster.” Literary figures, mostly eminent, some fringe, each name winners in the head-to-head matchups – and majority rules. For added excitement, a “zombie round” is introduced near the end of the tournament, in which two defeated books, determined by the online votes of ordinary readers, get a second chance. In honor of a favorite character in contemporary literature, David Sedaris’s brother, aka “The Rooster”, the winning author receives a live chicken. Discounted copies of all the contenders are for sale at Powell’s.

Here are the contenders for this year’s Tournament of Books:

For more information about the award, its judges, and to keep up all on the action, check out the official Tournament of Books site.

You can find this list in:
All 16 contenders and the winners of the Tournament of Books for the last five years can be found on page 125 of Read, Remember, Recommend: A Reading Journal for Book Lovers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 1:47 am and is filed under Award Spotlights and Updates, Award and Notable List Spotlights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.